New York Mets Scratch Steven Matz From Today’s Start
By Jason Burke
The New York Mets super rotation has taken some hits over the course of the season, and while Steven Matz has been gutting it out on the mound with bone spurs in his throwing elbow, he has been scratched from Friday’s start with general discomfort.
The New York Daily News is reporting that Matz, 25, will miss his scheduled start on Friday night in San Francisco with Seth Lugo getting the start instead. Lugo, a 26 year old right-hander, has made nine appearances with the Metropolitans out of the bullpen to the tune of a 2.25 ERA and a 0.94 WHIP across 17 innings since his big league debut on July 1. In 14 starts with Triple-A Las Vegas, Lugo held a 6.93 ERA this season with a .332 batting average against and a 1.70 WHIP.
As for Matz, the Daily News reports that he has been receiving shots of painkillers before his starts to combat the discomfort.
Matz said he felt fine after his last start on Sunday, but while throwing a curveball from flat ground on Tuesday when he “felt a twinge” that has lingered. Manager Terry Collins told the NY Daily News that the Mets would not consider using Matz again until his next turn through the rotation, which is Thursday in St. Louis.
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Since the beginning of July, the Mets have won just two of Matz’s eight starts, and the lefty has allowed 19 earned runs in 50.1 innings over that span for a 3.41 ERA. A pair of shutouts (the wins) helped to lower his ERA. Since starting the season 7-1, Matz is 2-7 and the Mets are 4-10 in his starts, even though Matz holds an above average ERA of 4.05 (league average being 4.18) over that span.
On the bright side, the team’s offense is set to return to the lineup on Friday. Yoenis Cespedes, who leads the team in batting average (.289), home runs (22), RBI (59) and OBP (.362) told Newsday that he would be ready for tonight’s game when he was asked on Thursday. Expected to join Cespedes and the rest of the Mets on Friday is Asdrubal Cabrera, who has seen his home run rate go up and his batting average drop over the course of the season.
Cabrera last played the day before the trade deadline, while Cespedes was placed on the disabled list just a couple of days after. Friday will be the first time that both players will be in the lineup with deadline acquisition Jay Bruce. Whether or not the Mets can produce enough offense to collect some wins remains to be seen, but if the injury to Matz isn’t serious, then New York is still very much in the wild card race at 4.5 games back.